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They were going to lose. He could feel it- as sure as his heartbeat, as sure as Penguin's smile when the overcast hit. As sure as Shachi sang to himself in the shower, all manner of little honesties and intentions that outlined the world in silver.
They were going to lose- but they didn't have to lose everything.
["I love ya, kid!"]
And Penguin is gripping tight to his Captain's arm, looking at him through the blood dripping over one eye, begging for orders- for a command, for a plan, anything-
Law breathes deep, and twitches a hand. The static waves over the world like a blanket as he exhales slowly.
"Hey, Pen.", he asks in a moment of clarity- in a ten second eternity, "Remember. Remember when. We were kids? And- pfft. And you found those. Silly little bootlegs?"
"Wh- Yeah, sure, whatever-"
"And I stole 'em- just cause? And you hated the damn things?"
The edge of the Room breathes over the Tang in its fullness.
["I love ya, kid!"]
"Yeah-"
"I think I know how to finally get rid of them.", he breathes. He drops Kikoku, he knocks Penguin's hat from his head- and replaces it with a familiar spotted hunting cap. And he smiles.
"Law?"
"Shambles."
The enemy snarls in rage- there is the clatter of plastic against stones as figurines bounce off the rocks where crewmates once stood. Law leans down, to pick up Penguin's old hat and drop it on his own head and snatch up Kikoku. He looks over the battlefield, and narrows his eyes when he sees orange crawling forward, pushing itself to unsteady feet.
"Bep- BEPO, YOU NEED TO GET TO THE SHIP-"
"NO!"
Law watches as Bepo pushes something between carnivore's teeth and shatters it with a bite, "I'M NOT LEAVING YOU CAPTAIN! WE'LL SAVE EVERYONE TOGETHER!"
["I love ya kid!"]
Law feels his eyes sting, and nods; the sound of Sulong loud around him as he unsheathes his weapon and braces for what will be his final stand. A deep breathe, a slow exhale- and the flare of a feathered blue coat as he stands tall. He swears, for a moment, he smells tobacco and rose cologne. He barks a laugh at his eternal witness, his favorite ghost, and he whispers under his breathe-
["I love ya kid-"]
"Love you dipshits. Now run."
And to the fray he flies- a shrike with knifesharp beak at the ready, a corvid calling it's final caw.
===========
The Heart crew clatters into the Tang, swearing and snarling as they thud into heavy metal flooring and against thick hull walls. They scramble to their feet, scattering immediately as they try to up the engines, howling for turbines to fire and pleading with whatever powers that be to bless them with speed impossible. Penguin sits in the control room- his shock palpable as law's hat sits crooked on his head and Shachi meets his eyes with broken glasses failing to cover his anguish.
"ENGINES TO BRIDGE, ENGINES TO BRIDGE!", calls Ikkaku's voice over the comm system, "I CAN'T- I CAN'T GET 'ER GOING! HE USED SOME OF THE CONNECTORS TO DO THAT FUCKING SWITCH I CAN RIG IT BUT WE DON'T HAVE TIME CAN ANY OF YOU DEEP PRESSURE SWIM THE DISTANCE?!"
Penguin's hand flutters out, hitting the flashing button as he licks dry lips and rasps, "N. No. No we can't, we wouldn't make it. He knew that. He fucking knows that that's why-"
"Where's Bepo!", snarls Shachi, "I NEED EYES ON OUR NAVIGATOR RIGHT GODDAMN NOW-"
"He's still on land!", is Hakugan's panicked answer, "He must have dodged the Room edge-!"
Shachi's fist slams into the fist, "IKKAKU, I NEED YOU TO BURN AS HARD AND FAST AS POSSIBLE, GET THIS GODDAMN TIN CAN UP AND RUNNING ASAP-"
Penguin stares at nothing, letting the hollow feeling in his chest spread as he mouths words to himself. Swears and curses and pleas to a God he never believed in but heard a little boy with patchwork scars talk about once upon a blizzard watched through old windows. The movement in the Tang is wild and brutal- the signs of battle on land wild and bright and finally her hum is loud and rattling the walls and finally Penguin gets to his feet.
"Put everything she's got into getting us back there-", he rasps, "We gotta save Law- we can't let him take this one alone."
The rapid roll and pull sends crewmates tumbling yet again even as they claw their way back to their feet; hands dug into microscopic seams and holding tight to bolted down protrusion and furniture; the flickers and flash of combat cut down even into the deepest water to illuminate ancient stone and scattering life and Penguin stumbles as he makes his way to a Captain's chair rarely used to collapse into it; his bones feel like jelly and the concussion is in full bloom.
"Please.", he whispers as he pulls Law's hat from his head and holds it tight, "Please, God- If you're real, if you're there- not him. Not our li'l brother. Anyone but him, take me instead just please-"
His eyes ache like they're ready to burst like new stormclouds over old tides.
"Please."
The flashes of combat flare less and less- less and less and less as they close the distance and something in Penguin's gut tells him before his brain realizes it that they are far too late.
The Tang finally surfaces- water cascading from her hull as the door flies open and Shachi careens onto the still wet deck to run to the rail. He sees the tail end of Balckbeard's ship arcing away with the wind and his grip is white-knuckled as he narrows inhuman eyes and grits knifelike teeth- a hand lands on his shoulder. He turns his head to see Ikkaku, her eyes tearstained already as her thumb rubs against the edge of a shoulderblade.
"Maybe- Maybe he's alright?"
"He ain't. I can smell it.", rasps Shachi, "...He's always been one to burn down before flare up."
The shoreline is bright white and splattered with broken stones.
[Law smiles tiredly as he greets his crew, laughing softly as Bepo barrels into him for a hug and knocks his hat from his head.]
The Tang whines as her engines wind down slow, idling in the water as the Heart Crew cascades from the deck into the water to strike out the last footstep of their desperate rescue mission. When boots finally find purchase on sea rubble they fight against the drag of the incoming high tide to run onto the now empty battlefield; Shachi covers his nose with a gag before shaking his head sharply- the smell of blood and death so thick in the air it feels like it could choke him.
"I SEE ORANGE!", shrieks Clione as every head turns in the direction he points- and they begin to run. Jean Bart grabs an armful of stumbling crewmates as his heavy steps carry them forward but at the head of the pack is Shachi- and ahead of him, wearing Law's hat, is Penguin.
The sight of Bepo's bedraggled and torn jumpsuit is a sight for sore eyes, and a crew's worth of hearts rise at the figure propped up against the bear-mink's stomach... Until they see the red patches littering the orange. The frayed edges of bullethole wounds no longer even sluggishly leaking, Kikoku across Law's lap with a scored and weakened blade as the fur around the hilt is dyed a sickening rust red.
Law's head hangs, Penguin's hat limp on the ground between his splayed legs; one with the shin bent at a grotesque angle and his white shirt saturated and singed.
"No-", choked Penguin, reaching a shaking hand out as he runs closer, "No, no no NO NO NO GODDAMIT NO LAW PLEASE NO!"
The body doesn't move. Penguin succumbs to his grief like a gunshot, his knees protesting as he almost slides thorugh the sand and gravel and sharp stone shards to kneel before his captain- his brother, his best friend- and hold Law's head between his shaking and calloused hands to tilt it up to face him.
Golden eyes sightless, jaw rigid yet relaxed; mouth quirked in a final smile, soft and knowing and as gentle as their Captain could ever be.
"Law- Law, c'mon you. You gotta answer me here c'mon-", Penguin says weakly as he hears Shachi's broken wail of grief behind him, "Bep- Bep c'mon you gotta. You gotta get up man; now ain't the time for a nap we gotta. Get you both back on the Tang, you need st-st-st-stitch-"
Penguin glances down, and then his vision blurs; he feels tears leaking over his cheeks, along his nose.
[He was so small, stitching a delinquent back together as Penguin watches, softly narrating what he does; and when Penguin asks why he keeps talking, the boy says, "Because it can be scary- being hurt and feeling alone."]
Eleven holes through Law's torso and stomach. Eleven rosepetals on the sea when the Captain tossed a flower into the water one early morning "to remember, and say goodbye". Eleven gaps in flimsy armor because even when the world called him cold his crew knew that Law walked with his heart on display if you knew where to look, how to see.
"P-Pen.", Ikkaku whispers, "Penguinn, come on we. We gotta. We gotta get the bodies into the. The morgue."
He turned his head.
"Shachi- Shachi won't let them be laid to rest here.", she continues, "Come on-"
"Yeah.", he acquiesces, "...He's right."
He does not move. He barely breathes. Ikkaku pulls away, wringing her hands and jolting as Shachi strides past her- she watches with her heart shattering in her eyes as Shachi moves to sit beside their Captain's corpse- to dig around in a waterproofed pocket for a cigarette pack and beaten down old lighter. Penguin moves then- to sit upon the other side. They both lean back, resting a hand on Bepo's cold form and petting at whatever fur they could reach after a cigarette was lit and passed between them; as if pressing shoulder to shoulder with Law could warm the body back to life.
Ikkaku wraps her arms around herself, and recedes from this strange wake.
Later- as the sun sets, Jean Bart looks over the grieving crew before he turns on his heel, before he trudges back to the water and sets out back to the Tang. He pulls himself back up, back onto her deck- he ignores the flickers of Law's ghost he swears he sees (and how hard it is, and how much it tears the tendons of his chest to shreds as he breathes against the urge to call the Captain's name, as if he was sneaking a cigarette or a cup of coffee out of sight) and he ducks into the labyrinth of his home.
The communications room is silent, aside from the submarine's idle hum.
"...This is Polar Tang to Thousand Sunny- can you hear me, are you there.", he says softly after gently rousing the denden, "...This is Jean Bart of the Polar Tang to Thousand Sunny, please; please if you can hear me, please answer I beg you."
"Thousand Sunny, Nami here! What's up Jean Bart, it's late-"
"Our Captain has fallen."
"O-Oh, oh my GOD okay, okay give me your coords; we can make a pass on our way, you can't be too far-"
He makes it through a raspy whisper of numbers, of latitudes and longitudes before it's finally too much to take, to much to bear; before he finally breaks himself and lets his eyes leak in silence. Nami's voice is sweet, and soft- so gentle, given her cutthroat ways. He smiles weakly- no wonder Captain thought the way he did of her.
["I had a sister once- a conniving kid. Runs in the family. The Strawhat's navigator reminds me of her."]
When the call ends, Jean Bart stares at nothing; and no one. He stares out the porthole window and watches stars rise and suns fall and clouds roil in their eternal march across the world.
It feels so empty, the sky- feels so painfully empty to him now.
============
Uni and Clione pace along the shoreline; muttering back and forth with other crewmates as they try to make a plan of action while Penguin and Shachi remain distant and close to the bodies- so when the roaring call of the Thousand Sunny shatters the air, all of them jump and swear in shock. They look up- seeing the Strawhat's ship's silhouette behind the surfaced Tang helping outline the shadow of Jean Bart once more climbing down to return to shore. They watch in silence. They watch in emptiness, in hollowness.
It is the work of moments for the one time rival crew to make their landing- faces telegraphing their own sadness as they do-
The cook arrives first; daring through the air with the snap of gunfire before he hits the shore running past, cigarette clutched between his teeth; followed by the swordsman, who hits the ground like a meteorfall and leaving his bootsteps etched in the dirt before he glances over the Heart crew- before taking a deep breathe and bowing from his waist, whispering his condolences, his sorrow to them.
The archaeologist, the shipwright, the sniper with the navigator carried on his back to make travel just that much quicker.
And finally, their captain. Their boisterous fool of a captain, who happily clambered upon their own with a cackle and cheer to perch on one shoulder. The one that Law had often called another name when exhausted by antics.
"Where is he, please.", asks Luffy, his voice soft.
Ikkaku points with a weak hand, looking at the ground as she does, "...Pen and Shachi are. Are with them. With Law and Bepo."
"Oh no- you lost them. Lost them both?", asks Nami, stepping carefully over destroyed ground, "How?"
"He shambled us onto the Tang.", said Uni flatly, "To. To get us out of. Out of h-harm's way when. When Blackbeard and his crew-"
A squeeze of eyes to shut tight, and he falls silent.
Luffy nods, brown eyes dark and shimmering with a veneer of saltwater not of the sea as he turned away and took his heavy steps towards the flicker of orange away from the rest.
Sanji kneels already, murmuring in Northern as he reaches out to shake Penguin's leg, and then prod carefully at Shachi's stomach. He turns to look to his Captain.
"..They're asleep, Loof.", he says softly, "...Dunno how long they sat here with the bodies, but. But I think they finally wore themselves out grieving."
Luffy nods, sitting down heavily and crossing his legs, "..Sanji?"
"Mm."
"...You were close to Law too, you both kinda came from the same place?"
"Yeah."
"What do. What do they do in the North? to say goodbye?"
"...Bury them at sea, usually.", he says with a chipped edge to his voice, "Usually. Usually the sea closest to where they came from, if they can. If not then. Wherever is easiest-"
"Flevance."
Sanji jerks away, looking down to see Penguin's burnt dusk eyes glaring up at him from under the brim of Law's hat.
"He came from a place called Flevance. That's the sea quadrant we lay him to rest in.", is the rasped demand, "...A wake, and a funeral, and a final resting place."
Luffy nodded, "...We'll go with you then. Your ship is really beat up- we can help protect you. Tow you, even; that way your crew can rest on my ship."
"Its appreciated- my crew's gonna need it. I'll stay on the Tang; with Law."
"And with me.", Shachi says, glancing up with a click of his teeth, "He. Our. Our little brothers don't. They don't sleep well. Alone."
Penguin nods, and Sanji looks away to chew the inside of his cheek as Luffy bites his lip and blinks the tears away, "We gotta make sure they. They rest. Before we go on."
Shachi grips tight to Bepo's destroyed jumpsuit, and Law's ice cold and rigor mortis ridden hand. He rubs a thumb over tattooed knuckles and takes deep and shaky breathe that leaves him in a mourners whine.
Penguin has an arm around Law's shoulders, had tilted the body to lean against him- the captain's temple resting against an aching shoulder as sightless eyes reflect Luffy's remorse.
"He's our family, y'know- not just our captain.", Penguin continues, "I gotta. I gotta take care of him. H-He fuckin' s-sucks at it."
Sanji sits next to Luffy, and they guard the grieving pair as they hold tight to the snow-cold corpse of the one who saved them once- who pulled them back together.
A breeze flickers over them, ruffling Bepo's fur and Law's hair.
["I love ya, kid!"]
["I love my crew- my friends."]